Take 5: Toyota Owners 400 from Richmond Raceway

By Zack Albert | Sunday, April 14, 2019

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Another short-track Saturday night is in Richmond Raceway's record books, and it welcomed a new winner in Martin Truex Jr., who broke his string of rotten luck at the Virginia venue with his first victory of the season and his first short-track win in the 81st try of his career. As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series eases into an off weekend, here's the five story lines and learnings to unload from the Toyota Owners 400.

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Playing nice: As Clint Bowyer ran third behind leader Martin Truex Jr. and a fast-closing Joey Logano, there was a word of warning over his radio along the lines of, "He's wrecked him before. Be ready." As it turns out, the two front-runners battled for the win incident-free, with no repeat of the final-lap fracas that exploded last fall at Martinsville Speedway. Are Truex and Logano simpatico now? Perhaps so. "I don't know if we're cool, but I certainly have a lot of respect for Joey as a person and his accomplishments, and I really appreciate the way he raced me tonight," Truex said. "I don't know if he tried to hit me or not. Maybe he didn't or maybe he did. I don't know. I don't know, to be honest with you. I'm glad he didn't, though. I appreciate it. Hopefully we can race clean for the rest of the year."

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Team balance: Truex's Richmond win kept the stranglehold on Victory Lane this season between the two dominant teams -- Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske. This latest triumph, however, may have slightly shifted the balance of power into JGR's court. The preeminent Toyota organization now has six 2019 wins to Penske's three at the quarter mark of the season. "There are times when teams get on a run and on a roll, and I appreciate our guys and certainly getting Cole and Martin on board with a win is a huge deal for us, and I know it's a huge deal for Toyota," said team owner Joe Gibbs. "But I also know it's very hard in pro sports to stay up there, and we're just getting going in the season, but we're going to work hard at it, but it's a hard thing to do."

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Busch goes bust: Kyle Busch has overcome in-race obstacles with major rallies from deep in the field to win this season, but Saturday night's comeback hopes fell short. With it, his chances for a third straight Richmond win evaporated. Busch placed eighth, leading 101 laps before a pit-road speeding penalty in on Lap 131 of 400 knocked him to 26th in the running order. He rose back into the top 10 in the final stage, but dropped from sixth to 10th after a green-flag pit cycle sorted out. Busch's post-race disappointment was clear, but his stat line heading to the off weekend remains remarkable -- 9-of-9 in gathering top-10 finishes this year.

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Sean Gardner | Getty Images

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Larson's luck: Hard contact with the Turn 1 retaining wall left Kyle Larson with his second last-place finish in the last three races. His overall start to the season isn't cumulatively much better, with just two top 10s and no top-five runs for the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. "It's been a pretty crappy start to the year," Larson said. "We've had decent speed. We didn't have great speed tonight, but on the weeks that we have speed, we still run into issues. I hate the start to the season I've had. On that restart, I got stuck in the middle. I probably squeezed whoever was underneath me and caused some tire damage and we had to pit to fix that. But they didn't do a good job of pulling the fenders out and then I got a flat and was back in the wall. But hopefully this break is a good time and we can re-group."

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Give me a break: The Monster Energy Series gets a rare week of rest for the Easter holiday next weekend. For some teams, it's a chance to conduct some self-evaluation as the regular season rolls along. Others will likely keep plugging with their rigorous preparations. But two weeks from now, racing returns with a roar at one of the circuit's most treacherous tracks: Talladega Superspeedway. With that note of foreboding, enjoy the well-deserved breather.

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